So, Season 2 of the hit ABC television series LOST was released on DVD this week and, quite frankly, it’s not possible to care less. After a semibrilliant first season — and a pilot episode in which the first ten minutes were the best ever — the second was mired in bad scheduling and worse storylines.
But the real reason for lost (heh) interest in the second season, to the point where I missed episodes (and didn’t care) and will not just avoid buying the Season Two DVD set but also try to sell (or give away) Season One, was the ridiculous overabundance of suburban-housewifey plot developments:
- Sun’s pregnant!
- Claire and Charley: will they get together?
- Jin and Sun: will they get back together?
- Locke’s marriage proposal: denied!
- Sayid and Shannon: denied!
- Kate and Jack? Or Kate and Sawyer?
- Hurley and Libby: will they get together? (Denied!)
- Claire’s baby! Will he survive?
- …and so on
Babies and romance, romance and babies… It’s easy to ascertain LOST’s target demographic (my Mom). Still, there was that cool, mystery-conspiracy stuff with which they occasionally teased viewers. But… then there’s this, from executive producer Carlton Cuse in the 4 August 2006 Entertainment Weekly:
“This year will have less emphasis on mythology. [...] It’s gonna focus more on romance and action.”
And that’s it, right there. LOST became the televisual equivalent of:
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It seems to be a victim of its own popularity. It reminds me of the series Twin Peaks where it should have been twelve episodes then no more. There’s a core story with many compelling elements, but the networks and producers try to drag it out to the point where the core story (and most of its original appeal) become Lost (sorry). Too bad.
If it were not for your second sentence, Ian, I’d stand and give you a Slow Clap. (On 21 November 2006, when Twin Peaks Season Two is released, I think the oft-repeated idea that “anything after Laura Palmer was superfluous” will be shattered. It was in the second season that the whole Black Lodge/White Lodge thing was explored and it was riveting; the last 30 minutes of Twin Peaks was television like we’ve never seen, nor will ever see again).
Continued…
But you’re right about LOST… It’s not just a victim of it’s own popularity, but the creators actually think that what they’re doing is (still) gold. I have no problem with the whole flashback structure that snagged us in the first place; I do, however, have problems when it’s the same fuckin’ flashback over and over (and over). Jack has daddy issues? Really? I didn’t get that the first forty times he flashed back to that.
Depending on the interweb to sustain the mythology angle (through Hanso websites and the like) is as big a mistake as New Line made by thinking the Web alone could bring bums to seats for Snakes on a Plane.
Hell, Lost lost me at killer mutant polar bears.
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLT!
I know! With whom is Walt gonna fall in love? And I just can’t see him creating any polar bear babies, because that would be a sin. So gone from the cast list.
Lost episode 7 - Not in Portland
Brainwashing Scene with Karl strapped to the chair in Room 23.
Seperated with surround sound and played backwards you can hear a creepy woman saying “Only fools are enslaved by time and space”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmAz86uHq4